Despite residing in the weakest division in the league, they failed to make the playoffs in the two years following their magical run to the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. They were 56-62-12 with a minus-48 goal differential in those two seasons, and despite having two elite players up front and some interesting youngsters on the way, they were a clearly flawed club. Those flaws were only supposed to become more apparent given the NHL's realignment; after all, Tampa Bay was moving from the cake Southeast Division to the Atlantic, with at least four teams that were better on paper than them.

Tampa Bay Lightning. (AP Photo)

The Tampa Bay Lightning were not supposed to be good this year.

Despite a 12-4 start -— which included victories over the Kings, Blues, and Blackhawks (twice!) — the clock seemed ready to strike midnight for them in short order. After all, even though they had beaten some of the Western Conference’s elite they’d also beaten up on the likes of the Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres. That fall from grace looked like it was about to be expedited following Steven Stamkos’ nasty leg injury against the Bruins on Nov. 11. They went 0-3-1 on a subsequent trip through California, getting outscored by a 17-6 margin.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were not supposed to be good this year.

Especially since Steve Yzerman was still running the operation. With all due respect to Stevie Y as a player, his tenure as general manager hadn’t exactly been littered with successful moves. Some of those moves included (in no particular order): throwing $33 million at Matt Carle, giving Valtteri Filppula a five-year deal, trading away rookie of the year candidate Cory Conacher and three draft picks for nearly 14 feet of unproven goaltending. Those were the big moves, and they all seemed to from questionable to downright horrid.

But guess what? Despite all of that, the Tampa Bay Lightning are actually kind of pretty good this year. How have they managed to do it? A combination of things all coming together. Nick Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports recently wrote a really nice feature on them, but there are a few things worth adding to the discussion.

First off, they managed to put together quite the pool of prospects. If you’ll recall, their AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, won 28 straight games back in 2011-12. Five guys from that team — Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Radko Gudas, Richard Panik, and Ondrej Palat — have been a key part of their success this season. All five are homegrown talent, and all of them were bargain-bin finds (Panik was the mostly highly drafted, and he was 52nd overall back in ’09). Johnson has been bumped up to the No. 1 center role with Stamkos out, and has acquitted himself just fine, playing big minutes, generating offense, and doing his part to form the smallest line in NHL history (Johnson is listed at 5'9, with St. Louis at 5'9 , and Palat at 6 feet). All Gudas has done is garner himself a cult following of sorts thanks to his prolific beard, and bone-crunching collection of hits.

A slightly less imposing presence (legs aside), St. Louis, has kept trucking along without his running mate in Stamkos, and boasts one of the most underratedly awesome stories around. He has 38 points in 39 games (tied for 13th), averages an astounding 21-and-a-half minutes (good for 6th in the league amongst forwards), and oh by the way, he’s 38 years old. Since Stamkos got hurt, all of his underlying numbers pretty much look identical to the way they did prior to the injury (to go along with the 22 points he has generated in those 22 games).

While St. Louis’ sustained excellence has been surprising, it hasn’t quite been the revelation that Valtteri Filppula's has been this year. It was easy to question the signing when it happened on the first day of the free-agent frenzy. During his big breakout campaign back in 2011-12, he was largely the beneficiary of Henrik Zetterberg’s magic (really cratering without him). Last year, he managed just 17 points in 41 games. It was fair to wonder why the Lightning were throwing $25 million at him, and even though he has been great, it’s still distinctly possible that the contract will look horrid down the line. But for now he’s proving to be a godsend, heavily tilting the ice in his team’s favor on the second line along with Killorn.

Speaking of decisions I questioned at the time: Ben Bishop, what on earth? A 1.89 GAA, .935 save percent, and 20 wins in 29 appearances is how his resume reads this year. I only saw him a handful of times prior to this season, and while he was a towering presence in the blue paint, he really struggled in his movement and looked more leaky and lumbering than anything else.

As with Filppula, just because he has been wildly successful up until the halfway mark doesn’t mean that he’s going to be able to keep it going in the future, nor does it mean that Yzerman made a wise decision in acquiring him. Goalies are incredibly random and unpredictable, and paying for them is often a fruitless mission. But Conacher has greatly struggled, and the Lightning haven’t (yet!) given Bishop a large contract. They’d be wise to let things play out, and not buy high on him when he’s at his absolute peak in value. Time and time again, unfortunately, we see hockey executives make the same mistake.

That’s besides the point, though. Bishop’s season — which should have him sitting in the top three in the Vezina Trophy race at the moment (behind Tuukka Rask and battling with Josh Harding for that second spot) — is probably the largest reason for the team’s success, to go along with the development of their young players, St. Louis’ continued greatness, and Jon Cooper’s work behind the bench.

At the halfway mark of the season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are currently sitting pretty with a third seed, a 23-12-4 record, and a plus-17 goal differential (only behind the Bruins and Penguins out East). They’re controlling shot attempts at 5v5 in score-close situations at the seventh-best rate in the entire league, at 52.5 percent. Their PDO is slightly elevated at 5v5 because of their obscenely high save percentage, but they’re only shooting 7.2 percentage (18th), which bodes well for their ability to sustain their success. They’re also 6-2-2 in their past 10, and have been playing some rather inspiring hockey without the presence of their best player. Speaking of.. did you know that Stamkos currently sits just five measly goals from the top 10 on the year? Despite having missed a good six weeks? He’s pretty good, and he should be back in that Gatorade jersey sooner rather than later.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were not supposed to be good this year but, due to the sum of their unheralded parts, they are.